Pyledriver cut for Arc glory

Pyledriver’s 18/1 success, beating five rivals by upwards of two and three-quarter lengths in the mile-and-a-half midsummer Ascot highlight, was run in a time of just under two and a half minutes.

He was 18 lengths clear of Irish Derby winner Westover and 25 lengths in front of unlucky Oaks runner-up Emily Upjohn, who represented the Classic generation.

Though the going ahead of the Group One contest was officially described as good to firm, Muir felt the ground rode easier and was fulsome in his praise for clerk of the course Chris Stickels for producing a surface he described as “perfect”.

Muir also countered those who felt last season’s Arc winner, Germany’s Torquator Tasso, who chased home Pyledriver, did not have his optimum conditions.

“I walked the course and fair play to Chris Stickels. That course was in magnificent condition,” said Muir. “That was good ground. That was not good to firm (good in places), that was beautiful, beautiful ground. Perfect ground.

“But they all forget, four runs ago, when I was going to Hong Kong, they said, ‘Pyledriver is much better on soft ground’.

“Now we have gone and won, we are longer in the betting for the Arc than the horse who finished second, because they say the German horse will appreciate soft ground! I think people just don’t know what they are on about.”

In Coral’s Arc de Triomphe betting, Torquator Tasso has been cut to 10/1 from 12/1 for a repeat success.

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